Tag Archives: Isaiah 40:21-23

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Isaiah 40:21-23

Do you remember that scene in ‘Titanic’ where Leonardo DiCaprio is on the bow of that great ship and cries out, “I’m the king of the world”? Or, Shirley MacLaine in the movie, “Out On a Limb” when she stood on the shore of the Pacific Ocean and sang, “I am God, I am God, I am God.” (see Fatheralexander.org)

What do you suppose God thinks of that? Frank Peretti humorously imagines in his video, “The Chair,” from Compass International, God hearing this little squeal while Shirley MacLaine is beating her chest and declaring loudly that she’s God, and says, “Hey, Peter, get a load of this,” as He hears a little squeak. In other words, He is God and we’re not. He is the true King of the World.

God sits above the circle of the earth and we are like grasshoppers. He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and brings princes to rulers to nothing. Isaiah 40 goes on to say that scarcely have the kings and princes established themselves when God blows on them and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

Proverbs 21:1 tells us that, The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will. God controls the rulers of the world, even the evil dictators. They do His bidding. So when it looks like the world is falling apart, with a variety of situations that threaten to spin out of control—know that God establishes leaders and He brings them down.

We don’t need to fret when we turn on the news. We do need to entrust ourselves into the hands of a God who sits above the circle of the earth, whose Ways are not our ways, and whose thoughts are not our thoughts, as Isaiah 55:8 declares.

The personal application of Isaiah 40 is coming to the conclusion that there is a God who sits on the throne and that this God of the universe if worthy of all of your praise. I was reading about what Steven Hawking believed. He was one of the smartest guys on the planet, yet before his death in March of 2018, he still claimed to be an atheist. He believed that there was a grand design to the universe, but it had nothing to do with God.

Throughout the years, Hawking has made many statements in opposition to religious beliefs. A few are listed below. These quotes are taken from owlcation.com:

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”

“There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.”

“We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no God. No one created our universe, and no one directs our fate.“ This leads me to a profound realization that there probably is no heaven and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful.”

I look at the contrast between his life and mine. I am not as smart, by a long stretch, but I do know, to borrow the line of a hymn, “that at God’s right hand stands the One who is my Savior.” The same power that enables Jesus to hold the universe together (Colossians 1:17) is the same power that holds me together.